Hi all,

Well we've been having plenty of exciting adventures since our last blog entry. We've been so busy in NZ, there is so much to see and do and there have been several occasions where we wished we could have stayed places an extra night or two.

After Te Anau we drove North-West through the lovely historic (though touristy) Arrowtown, and by the side of Lake Hawea to Makarora and had a lovely campfire at the Wilderness Resort.

We then visited Fox Glacier. Afterwards found out that two Australians died at the glacier face very soon after our visit which was pretty shocking. Had a lovely walk around Lake Matheson but weren't able to see much of Mt Cook unfortunately.

Did a half-day walk on Franz Josef Glacier the following day but wished we had saved our money; there was torrential rain the whole day which made the trip pretty miserable and almost killed the screen on my new camera (though it has thankfully dried out again now). We did however get to see plenty of fantastic blue ice which was pretty stunning. Alex admirably drove on up to Hokitika after the walk and the next morning the sun made a welcome reappearance and we enjoyed looking around the artists' shops in the interesting town and spent a bit of time pebble hunting on the beach. That night we camped at a lovely free campsite on the Takaka River with some interesting characters and accomodation around!

Visited Te Waikoropupu Springs (good name hey?!) the next morning which had fantastically clear water, then on to Pohara Beach where we had planned to rent a kayak and go paddling round Abel Tasman National Park, but unfortunately it was too windy so we just had to sit on the beach and swim in the sea instead, bit of a shame, but not so bad!!

The next day we went over to Wellington on the ferry with beautiful views over the Marlborough Sounds. We visited Old St Pauls which is a cathedral all built in local timber and a few other interesting sights.

Next stop after that was in a little town called Clive, midway between Hastings and Napier, the motor camp had very friendly owners and occupants. It was a short drive up to Napier the next day. Napier was an amazing, surreal place, destroyed by an earthquake in 1931. The entire town was rebuilt in an Art Deco style, the buildings were well maintained, we had a good look around enjoying the architecture. Then we set off inland to enjoy Napier's surrounding wine region, stopping at a couple of Cellar Doors for tastings and purchases and then drove on to Lake Taupo.

Lake Taupo is where it gets really exciting!! Here in one day we both skydived from the highest legal limit in New Zealand (in tandem); 15,000ft, though we actually jumped from 16,000ft as the lake is 1,000ft above sea level. The flight up was stunning, the freefall amazing and a major rush for us both with over 60 seconds of freefall over Lake Taupo and Tongariro National Park before the parachutes opened. Alex was after more adrenalin so when we got back to our campsite, he booked in for the Taupo Bungy in the afternoon. This is the highest bungy over water in the world and the video of the jump is processing and should be up on here in a day or two, as you will see, he got wet! Back at the campsite we made use of their thermal pool complex which was deliciously hot and relaxing - a very nice way to unwind.

After leaving Lake Taupo we went up to Wai-O-Tapu, which is, along with Taupo, the most volcanically active area of the planet. The landscape looked like another planet with steaming craters, lakes of sulphurs, acids and chlorine bubbling up in terrific luminous colours amongst what must be very tough shrubery. Whereas Taupo has resulted in a beautiful lake, lovely countryside and some thermal pools, Wai-O-Tapu smells like rotten eggs and is covered in bubbling mud; a fascinating contrast.

Yesterday we went Blackwater Rafting in the Waitomo Caves (much more leisurly than the White version, but pretty active still), the highlight for me was floating in our tubes in the dark looking up at the light of thousands of glow-worms.

We are now in Paihia in the Bay of Islands, staying in possibly the best campsite so far; it is on the river and we have river views from our site, great fascilities, lots of character and some nice fellow guests. We've been out sailing on a vast catamaran which was only half full today, had a great sail, Alex got some kayaking in and we both enjoyed a snorkel over to a private little beach!

Only 4 more days in NZ to go, and then we're off to Fiji for a week to recover.

Speak soon.

Lots of love,

Debbie and Alex xx